1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system for remote monitoring of smart cargo container security devices and more specifically to providing a platform for translating between device inputs that includes container transponders adapted to receive local signals and repeating or forwarding signals to an Information Management Bureau (IMB) capable of providing a universal device architecture for normalizing system functions from container to container.
2. Background of the Invention
In today's security conscious shipping environment, smart container monitoring systems and alarming devices have become part of the long term solution. Current computer tracking systems are effective at monitoring the location of individual containers from point of origin to destination and maintaining an inventory of loaded and empty containers. Most of these systems rely on transponders mounted on the containers that send messages to satellites or ground stations, from which the messages are rerouted to shipping companies, freight forwarders and companies.
A smart container monitoring system may include a sensing system for monitoring the contents of the container as well as the exterior environment of the container, an on-board processing system comprising a signal receiving element for receiving sensor data from the sensing system, a communication system, a memory for storing predetermined conditions, and a control element for analyzing received sensor data and declaring security alerts. Wide-spread fielding of the smart container monitoring systems will require standardization and the system wide infrastructure to ensure container systems are able to communicate effectively with the remote monitoring station, data fusion centers and/or satellites.
Today, approximately 90% of non-bulk cargo worldwide is transported by container, and modern container ships can carry up to 15,000 Twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). As a class, container ships now rival crude oil tankers and bulk carriers as the largest commercial vessels on the ocean. On the decks of modern barges and transport ships, a single smart cargo container stacked among the freight of the massive bulk carriers may experience a Faraday Cage effect whereby the reception of external radio signals and electromagnetic transmissions can be greatly attenuated or blocked altogether.
A Faraday Cage's operation depends on the fact that an external static electrical field will cause the electrical charges within the cage's conducting material to be redistributed so as to cancel the field's effects in the cage's interior. This phenomenon is used, for example, to protect electronic equipment from lightning-strikes and other electrostatic discharges. While Faraday Cages cannot block static and slowly varying magnetic fields, such as Earth's magnetic field (a compass will still work inside), to a large degree, they can shield the interior from external electromagnetic radiation if the conductor is thick enough and any holes are significantly smaller than the radiation's wavelength.